Are mobile wallets safe?

2 years ago

4 min read

In the tech-savvy era that we live in, business to consumer relationships are all becoming digitalised.

From using physical cash to swiping hard plastic, payment transactions have greatly changed, and now the future of money is on trend to have neither. More and more people are using mobile wallets, and digitally paying for everyday purchases.

With reports stating that more than half of shoppers have used mobile wallets, a lot of consumers might start to worry about the safety of these payments. We take a deeper look into the security of mobile wallets so you can rest easy knowing that your details are safe.

What is a mobile wallet?

A mobile wallet is basically a virtual version of your regular wallet, which stores all your information on a mobile device. It can store multiple details like credit and debit cards, coupons, reward cards, and even plane or train tickets.

Some mobiles such as the iPhone already come installed with one, otherwise you can easily download and install an app to be able to use your digital wallet.

What can a mobile wallet be used for?

The main aim of the digital wallet is to quickly make payments or send and receive money without the hassle of physical cards. They offer convince and ease, and are able to be accessed whenever and wherever.

You can transfer money with your virtual wallet by downloading mobile apps such as Azimo to send and receive payments internationally.

Payments can also be sent directly through SMS as well as through what’s called NFC – near field communications. You might have seen these at an increasing number of retailers, where you can tap your mobile on a payment card reader to complete the transaction. There is special hardware in the mobile app that interacts with the processing terminal. Apple Pay or Android pay are the biggest examples of NFCs.

A lot of websites are also starting to allow mobile wallets to pay for online shopping, so if you’re browsing from your phone you can easily make purchases straight through there.

Are they safe?

Absolutely. Mobile wallets offer increased security and can actually be safer to use than swiping your psychical debit or credit cards.

Magnetic stripes on the card are really easy to read by any magnetic scanner, which can leave them open to thieves stealing the card’s information. Also, when you swipe your normal cards, the data that is transmitted contains your card information. This means that if a hacker or someone intercepts this, they can manage to see these numbers.

However, with your digital wallet, every single transaction is heavily encrypted – when the data is transmitted it doesn’t contain your actual card or account numbers. What happens instead is that a random sequence of numbers is generated with each purchase. If this series of numbers is ever stolen, it would be completely useless to the thief.

Plus, in order to actually use mobile wallets and access your stored information, you will also need to provide a personal identification format, such as a PIN, fingerprint or face recognition.

But don’t ditch the physical wallet just yet…!

Mobile wallets are very safe and are a great way to quickly and easily make payments across multiple outlets, but don’t leave your regular old wallet at home!

It’s best to have it with you for those “just in case” scenarios – if your phone runs out of power, if the retail store you are at can’t accept mobile payments at the time or any other glitches where you’ll need either cash or a physical card.

Those minor concerns set aside, at least the one major thing that you won’t have to worry about with your mobile wallet is safety.

Now that you know all about mobile wallets, why not try our app to go with it? Send money quickly and securely to anywhere in the world, always at the best market rates available. Download for iOS or Android free and try us today – your first transfer’s on us.

Azimo Ltd. is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 (FRN 900220) for the issuing of electronic money. Azimo Ltd is licensed and regulated by HMRC as a Money Services Business (MSB) License Number 12676497

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